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Sarah Miller - Principal – sarah.miller@kite-college.org

Stuart Cumming - Deputy Head - stuart.cumming@kite-college.org

Sarah Murphy - Deputy Head - sarah.murphy@kite-college.org

KITE College - 01795 476450

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Understanding the Gatsby Benchmark updates

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Guidance on CV writing

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Learn what you can gain by spending time in a workplace to learn about a job role, a company or a career sector.

When to do work experience

Work experience is important for getting into any career. Having some can make you stand out from the crowd on applications for courses, training and jobs.

Work experience can be useful for anyone of any age and at any stage of your career. It can help you to gain skills and decide what to do if you are:

Most work experience is unpaid, but there are some opportunities where you can earn money.

Why work experience is important

Choosing what to do in your career may seem easier if you know what you want to be in the future. You can look for opportunities that will help you to develop skills for that career. This could be through:

It's an opportunity for you to:

test out your career ideas

improve your skills

show your commitment and enthusiasm

If you do not know what job you want, or you cannot get your perfect placement, any work experience is better than none. Whatever job you try, you'll learn more about yourself and working life.

You'll also gain skills in the process. It may even lead to more suitable experience with the same company. It could be good preparation for another opportunity that's closer to what you want to do.

Try not to worry about where you could go to get work experience. Concentrate on what you could learn or improve on.

Use work experience as research

Work experience is a chance for you to:

find out more about yourself

find out what inspires you

come up with career ideas and try them out

discover your strengths, values, motivations and interests

meet new people and build your network of contacts

identify any reasonable adjustments you may need because of a disability or long term health condition

It can also help you to rule out options, which can help to focus your career ideas.

To explore your work experience options, you can:

talk to your teachers, family and friends for ideas

ask people you know about their jobs and the places they work

talk to older students who have already done work experience

find out if your school, college or university has organised placements you can choose from

get advice from a careers leader or careers adviser

use our skills assessment tools to get ideas on jobs that may suit you

Build your soft skills

You can use your work experience as a time to build your soft skills. Employers look for employees who can show that they are:

trustworthy and reliable

good communicators

great team players

able to solve problems

willing to learn new things

able to adapt and 'bounce back' when things do not go to plan

These soft skills are common skills that are not specific to any one job but useful for most. You can learn and practise these skills in any workplace. Use your experience to show an employer that you have them.

Treat work experience as a challenge

You could use work experience to challenge yourself. Setting yourself a challenge will take you out of your comfort zone but you will gain a lot as a result. For example, you could try to overcome difficulties like:

communicating with people - try a customer service role to practise dealing with the public

working with others - build your confidence in a job where you can be part of a small team

Ways to get work experience

There are lots of different ways to get work experience. Some might be more useful or only available at certain points in your education or career.

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Work experience: how it can help you | National Careers Service

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Learn what you can gain by spending time in a workplace to learn about a job role, a company or a career sector.

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We're a UK-wide youth charity on a mission to help you find your feet and get the best possible start in life.

Our Career Personality Quiz is a quick, fun way to find out which types of careers are most likely to suit you and to get tailored updates about our latest work experience and inspirational talks.

Helping students like you!

Meet Josh and Joyce, two of the million-plus young people from across the UK who have felt their confidence skyrocket thanks to using our extraordinary programmes during their time at school and college!

Meet some of our employers

We offer free work experience opportunities with hundreds of leading employers from big-name businesses you'll already know to others you've yet to discover. With new employers coming on board all the time, here are a few of our top employers!

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Skills shortage increase sends an important message to us all New data from the Employer skills survey published September 2023 shows persistent skills challenges that businesses are facing. Over 72,000 employers in multiple sectors were surveyed to provide insight into the evolving labour market, focusing on skill-shortage vacancies, training and skill gaps across all regions [...]

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Speakers for Schools | Career Guidance and Work Experience for Students

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Discover Speakers for Schools, a UK-wide youth charity dedicated to helping students find their footing in life. Explore our career guidance resources, gain world-class work experience, and listen to inspirational talks from high-achieving professionals. Start your journey to success with us today.

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Full details can be found n the leaflet holder next to the Principals office

Outdoor Activity Instructor L3 Apprenticeship- Ashford ( Kingswood where we did Boss It )

Business Support Apprentice ( Maidstone/Kings Hill/Whitstable) ( KCC )

Store Management Apprentice - ( Aldi Sittingbourne )

Service Technician Apprenticeship- Canterbury

Apprentice Vehicle Technician - VW Dartford

Jaguar Land Rover- Parts Advisor Apprenticeship- Barretts Canterbury ( Maths and English A-C non-negotiable )

Customer Service Advisor- Sittingbourne ( Maths and English not essential as they would rather have the right person for the role )

If you do remove a copy of the job description, could it please be replaced.

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Apprenticeships - A Parent/Carer's Guide

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Apprenticeships - A Parent/Carer's Guide

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Featured resource

Apprentices Are Amazing Film

The Parent Perspective Podcast - Episode 4: Channel 4 and careers expert Sarah Barley

The Parent Perspective Podcast - Episode 3: Rolls Royce, Career Coaching and The NHS

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Apprenticeship resources for schools, teachers, parents

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Featured resource Apprentices Are Amazing Film The Parent Perspective Podcast - Episode 4: Channel 4 and careers expert Sarah Barley The Parent Perspective Podcast - Episode 3: Rolls Royce, Career Coaching and The NHS

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The National Careers Service website sets out job profiles and groups jobs by type and is useful to find out what the job is like and the qualifications you need.

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Careers advice - job profiles, information and resources | National Careers Service

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The National Careers Service can help you with your career, learning and training choices. Find out more about us and the different ways we can support you. This service is available to people who live in England.

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We are working with Murston Hub as part of our Preparation for Employment course

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Parents/carers are encouraged to talk about the world of work at home and to help you to do this, we can provide parents/carers with access to Unifrog.  Unifrog holds the worlds largest careers database and details Post 16 and Post 18 opportunities.  Every student has access to Unifrog at KITE College.   If you would like a parent/carer log in, please contact the Careers Team directly.

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Everything you need, in one place.

Our platform helps students with the whole progression process - from exploring their interests, to recording the great things they've done, to finding education and training opportunities, to drafting their applications.

Unifrog also helps teachers and counselors to manage the process - from delivering engaging lessons using our off-the-shelf teaching resources, to tracking careers interactions, to drafting References, to submitting applications.
More about International schools More about UK schools + colleges

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We help students compare every opportunity, then apply successfully. We also empower teachers and counselors to manage the progression process effectively.

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Include this article in your Skills Builder Journal. It could help you develop... The world is opening up a little more now, and there are more ways to help out your community. Volunteering is a great way to pick up new skills and make a difference to a cause YOU feel passionate about. If you want to help out, here's a few things to aid you on your way...
CHOOSE YOUR CAUSE

Start with what matters most to you.

Feel strongly about environmental issues? Then roll up your sleeves and get stuck into one of the numerous conservation projects happening across the UK. Want to help out with some worldwide scientific research, from the comfort of your sofa? Check out Zooniverse. You can even volunteer with the things you love the most, like football.

There are lots of different areas to volunteer in, including:

Mental health

Environmental issues

Poverty and homelessness

Elderly

Disabled people

Animal welfare

DO YOUR RESEARCH

There are so many ways to help out, it's worth having a look at the sort of role you might be best suited to, the amount of time you're able to give, and what's safe to do during this time.

Do you like talking to people or would you prefer something less interactive? Do you feel at home helping out in a charity shop or want to be surrounded by nature? Organisations often need help in all sorts of areas. If you have a specific skill, you could offer your expertise too.

Online volunteering makes it easy to work with an organisation you care about that might be on the other side of the world. Projects could include helping with their social media, website, translations or writing articles, which all look awesome on your CV too.

STAY LOCAL

Once you've worked out what kind of volunteer you'd like to be, you can start by seeing what's available in your area.

Do-it.org provides volunteering opportunities by post code but you could always help people you know from a distance, support the vulnerable and lonely in your community, reach out to your neighbours, send care packages, or even set up a socially distanced bingo night for your street.

There are also a lot of community based groups online like Nextdoor, that you could sign up to (check with your parents first), keep up to date with, share information and be a positive part of your local community.

Volunteering doesn't have to be big, time-consuming or scary, you can be a micro-volunteer in all sorts of ways that fit around your life.

GO FARTHER AFIELD

Once lockdown restrictions have been lifted and we start to go back to a more 'normal' life (however that may be!), you may want to go on more of an adventure with your volunteering. So you could try 'voluntourism'. It's the perfect way to mix travel, with making a difference in a new community.

You can volunteer with various charities or NGOs (non-governmental organisations) including International Citizen Service (ICS), who work across the world making big changes at a local level.

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"Unlock the power of giving back with NCS: Learn how to choose meaningful causes, research volunteer roles, and find opportunities near you or around the world.

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A trusted national careers organisation to empower and guide young individuals in making well-informed decisions about their future pathways.

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Success at School: Careers advice for schools and students

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Career advice for schools and students aged 13-19. Search jobs, advice & find out about employers, work experience, courses, career choices, apprenticeships and university.

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Labour Market Information - (LMI) is key when making decisions about your future career path. It includes facts, analysis and interpretation of data gathered about employment & workers, for example: average income and wages, employment and unemployment rates in your area, hours of work, which sectors are set to grow, qualifications required, gender balance and so on.

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The LMI for All portal provides high quality, reliable labour market information (LMI) to inform careers decisions.

Explore LMI data - interested in the labour market and want labour market information?
Here you can find out where to access information on the labour market and link through to some websites using LMI for All data. You can also explore data using our widgets, Careerometer and Skillsometer.

Designers - want to design your own labour market information website or application?
Here you can get some inspiration on how LMI for All could be used in your own website and learn how others have done it.

Developers - want to use LMI for All?
If you are a developer and want to use the LMI for All service, the you can find out about the service, how to access the API and, importantly, find out about the structure of the database and the data it includes.

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Parents and guardians, we know talking about careers can be daunting but we're here to guide you through the maze of post-16 and post-18 options.

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Guide to support applying for Apprenticeships and understanding the qualification reform

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Guide to support applying for Apprenticeships and understanding the qualification reform

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Amazing Apprenticeships have created a great guide for parents/carers, this edition is specifically to support applying for Apprenticeships and understanding the qualification reform – July 2025 - Choices

From the link, parents/carers can sign up to receive the newsletter.

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Amazing Apprenticeships | Explore Vocational Education & Apprenticeship Opportunities

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Amazing Apprenticeships | Explore Vocational Education & Apprenticeship Opportunities

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Amazing Apprenticeships | Explore Vocational Education & Apprenticeship Opportunities

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Amazing Apprenticeships | Explore Technical Education & Apprenticeship Opportunities

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Amazing Apprenticeships is a leading organisation in the education sector, working with schools, colleges, and employers to raise awareness and promote the benefits of apprenticeships and technical education across England.